Does Johnson defection doom the GOP?

December 29, 2011. Santa Fe. When former Governor Gary Johnson announced yesterday that he was quitting the Republican Party and taking his Presidential campaign to the Libertarian Party, it wasn’t much of a surprise. The conservative libertarian and former Republican Governor has been flirting with a party switch for weeks. In fact, word of Johnson’s inevitable move to the Libertarian Party leaked out over a week ago. What nobody seems to be talking about is the effect this has on the general election.

In announcing his move to the Libertarian Party yesterday, Johnson explained his motivation. “It was both a difficult decision, and an easy one,” he said from the New Mexico state capital, “It was difficult because I have a lot of Republican history, and a lot of Republican supporters. But in the final analysis, as many, many commentators have said since watching how I governed in New Mexico, I am a Libertarian – that is, someone who is fiscally very conservative but holds freedom-based positions on many social issues.”

The former New Mexico Governor struggled to get his Presidential campaign off the ground as a Republican. That wasn’t because his message didn’t garner support. Instead, it was due to a coordinated effort by the national Republican Party leadership and the national media to keep him out of the race. Since the early days of the campaign, Johnson has found himself consistently left off polls, making it impossible for him to poll anything other than 0. Without being included in the media’s polls, Johnson was unable to qualify to participate in the many Presidential debates.

Explaining his frustration yesterday, Johnson said, “Frankly, I have been deeply disappointed by the treatment I received in the Republican nomination process. Other candidates with no national name identification like Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman were allowed to participate in the debates. Incredibly, candidates with no executive experience like Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum were allowed to participate while I, a successful two-term governor with a solid record of job creation, was arbitrarily excluded by elitist media organizations in New York. My appeals to the Republican National Chairman for basic fairness were ignored.”

For more information on Gary Johnson’s uphill journey and the undemocratic tactics the national press is using, read the September article, ‘CNN Changing Election Outcome’ or the August article, ‘Mainstream Media not so Mainstream’.

Gary Johnson isn’t alone in his frustration with the Republican Party. He joins other big-name Republicans who have also left the party for independent or third party runs. Donald Trump has hinted at an independent run for the Whiteout House, while former GOP Congressman Virgil Goode appears to be leaving the Republican Party to run for President on the Constitution Party line. As today’s Whiteout Press article points out, each of those men are from the same wing of the Republican Party – the libertarian, Constitutionalist, free-enterprise wing.

The GOP seems ever divided into three segments – the Wall Street millionaire wing of Mitt Romney and New Gingrich, the Christian conservative wing of Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, and the libertarian-Constitutionalist wing of Ron Paul and Gary Johnson. If one-third of the Republican Party exits to support the former New Mexico governor in the Libertarian bid for President, whoever the GOP candidate is in November is doomed. And that brings up the crazy scenario written about in today’s above-mentioned Whiteout Press article titled, ‘Johnson Rocks GOP with Switch to Libertarian Party’. Whiteout Press is an independent news outlet and advocate for independent voters and candidates.

Two general election scenarios are taking shape at this early stage of the Presidential primary season – and both of them have been, and still are, unthinkable to the naïve national media and Washington insiders who are trying to orchestrate the entire process. Make no mistake, the producers and power-brokers of both major parties, are grossly underestimating the coming events.

Scenario 1 – Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination

The preordained outcome of the Republican primary is supposed to find Mitt Romney as the GOP Presidential nominee. Even if any other candidate out-votes the former Massachusetts Governor, there are enough mysterious ‘super delegates’ waiting to counter the voters’ delegates and insure Mr. Romney is the nominee. If and when that happens, something will occur that hasn’t happened in American politics in generations – A credible third-party candidate with a proven fundraising machine and a nationwide army of battle-hardened and experienced precinct workers will be on the ballot in November.

Unlike past credible independent runs for the White House like Ross Perot’s failed bid or John Anderson’s before him, Gary Johnson will have something that all Presidential candidates this cycle wish they had – Ron Paul’s campaign machine.

Since the news media likes to black-out both men’s campaigns, most election watchers aren’t aware that Ron Paul’s supporters and Gary Johnson’s supporters are one and the same. With Johnson running as a Libertarian in November instead of against Ron Paul and the rest of the GOP field in the primary, it creates a one-two punch for independents, libertarians and independent Republicans. If Ron Paul’s campaign for the Republican nomination fails, his entire election apparatus will walk directly to the Gary Johnson campaign and the Libertarian party for a second chance. You can bet on it. For those who don’t remember, Ron Paul ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988. With one-third of the Republican base jumping to the Libertarian Party’s Gary Johnson, the Republican Mitt Romney doesn’t stand a chance against President Obama in November.

Scenario 2 – Ron Paul wins the GOP nomination

This scenario, as explained by Whiteout Press today, creates an unimaginable realignment of the entire American political landscape. As anyone who’s been following the election coverage can attest, the establishment Wall Street wing of the GOP hates Ron Paul. A populist defender of average Americans and an advocate for the elimination of the Federal Reserve, a Ron Paul Presidency would jeopardize the cozy and profitable business relationship the Wall Street banks and multinational corporations have with our Federal government.

If Ron Paul wins the GOP nomination for President, expect a grand and orchestrated exodus from the Republican Party broadcast on all networks during primetime, every day for a month. The media and Fortune 500 will attempt to punish the Republican voter base for daring to nominate a candidate that isn’t approved of by the elite establishment. Where would the rich and powerful Republicans go? With a field full of populists and libertarians, their only choice would be to side with the man that has protected their interests for the previous four years – President Obama.

With the Democrat’s Obama enjoying the Republicans’ big money and corporate backing, the Republican nominee, Ron Paul, would also see an influx of new support. A Ron Paul nomination would bring in more new and young voters than the Obama campaign four years before. It would also bring in every independent and third party voter under the Republican Party banner, at least for this one, incredibly important, final battle. Think of it as an alliance between the populist Occupy Wall Street movement and the populist Tea Party movement. And it doesn’t end there.

There is no way that the Libertarian Gary Johnson would campaign against a Republican Ron Paul for the White House. More likely, knowing that a Republican-Libertarian coalition would be necessary to overcome the alliance of Republican and Democratic millionaires, some kind of arrangement might be negotiated where the two men campaign together as a President and Vice Presidential ticket. As crazy as that scenario sounds, the idea of a first-term, Chicago Machine-linked, black man becoming the next President was just as crazy at this exact stage of the Presidential election four years ago.

The fact is, 42 percent of American voters identify themselves as independents. And as the Independent Voters Association repeatedly points out for us, out of 435 Congressmen in the US House of Representatives, there are ZERO independents. Between the unfair ballot access laws, the media’s blatant bias against independents and third parties, a Congressional approval rating of 12 percent, and the treatment candidates like Ron Paul and Gary Johnson have been subjected to this election cycle – the political damn may be about to burst. And when it does, the tidal wave will flood directly into the Ron Paul and Gary Johnson campaigns.

For more information on the Gary Johnson Presidential campaign, visit the candidate’s website at www.GaryJohnson2012.com.

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